Marian H. Busse 1916 - 2006

Philanthropist's generosity helped fund medical building

January 19, 2006|By Rebecca Little, Special to the Tribune.

Marian H. Busse was a member of the board of directors at the Mt. Prospect State Bank and at the First National Bank of McHenry, and her philanthropy helped fund a medical facility in Arlington Heights named for her and her husband.

A multimillion dollar gift from Mrs. Busse helped build the William J. and Marian H. Busse Center for Specialty Medicine, which opened in 2003 on the campus of Northwest Community Hospital.

"I found her to be a lady of grace and real compassion," said Dave Ungurean, executive director of Northwest Community Healthcare Foundation. "She was a community leader and somebody who always gave back and invested in the welfare of others. She just truly cared about people."

"She really modeled community service," said her son, William Jr. "We all learned a sense of giving back and being active members in our community. Mt. Prospect was very good to my parents, and they gave back."

Mrs. Busse was born in Kenosha, grew up in Lake Geneva and graduated from Lake Geneva High School in 1934.

"She always wanted to go to college, but she graduated in the middle of the Depression and couldn't," her son said. "She was mainly self-taught."

She operated Marian's Beauty Shop in Mt. Prospect from 1935 until 1943. Her salon was on the same street as the bank, where her future husband worked.

They began dating and were married in 1943 in New Mexico, where he was stationed during World War II.

His family helped found the northwest suburbs and owned Mt. Prospect State Bank since 1911. She became a member of the bank's board after her husband died in 1972. She remained on the board for 15 years until the bank was sold to First Chicago Corp. in the late 1980s.

"She really took over after he died," her son said. "She understood all the regulatory issues of the day, and her main interest in the bank was auditing and internal controls. She really liked the detail work."

She also had been a member of the First National Bank of McHenry board since 1978. She helped start the bank with her son and son-in-law in partnership with another family.

"She provided a lot of vision," her son said.

Mrs. Busse lived in Mt. Prospect for 32 years before moving to Arlington Heights in 1983.

"She had deep roots in the Mt. Prospect community," her son said. "Both of my parents served on a variety of boards and really modeled community service for us kids."

Mrs. Busse was instrumental in helping to build the Northwest Suburban YMCA, now known as the Latoff YMCA. She and her husband were on the board in the early 1960s. She also was on the board of the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago for five years in the late 1960s.

She was a board member of Clearbrook Center Foundation and the Concordia University Foundation in River Forest. She took classes at Concordia but did not pursue a degree.

She also was an active member of St. Paul Lutheran Church.

She had volunteered with Northwest Community Healthcare for four decades and gave an undisclosed amount of money--the largest donation in hospital history--to fund the Busse Center for Specialty Medicine, which includes a state-of-the-art testing center and doctors' offices.

"When she made the gift, she said she felt it was important to give back and hoped it would encourage others that the hospital was a worthy charitable cause," Ungurean said.

"[The Busse Center] was named to commemorate their contributions and all they've meant to the hospital," Ungurean said. "There was a longtime partnership between the hospital, the Busse family and this community that they loved."

Mrs. Busse also was an avid angler who loved the outdoors.

"We'd go fishing and wouldn't catch a thing, and she'd go to one spot and boom, find a fish," her son said. "There was no better fisherman than her."

She owned a summer home on Big Spider Lake in Hayward, Wis.

"She was most at peace when she was in Hayward," her son said. "Down here, she was always running around."

She also is survived by two daughters, Margot Graves and Patricia Hinkey; five grandchildren; and a great-grandchild.